As a pastor or church leader, you’re busy with the important business of shepherding a flock. Raising money to do the good work you’re doing is an obvious practical necessity in many cases, but it’s not always on the top of a pastor’s list. And many church leaders aren’t well-versed in modern technology that makes fundraising easier. Church giving kiosks help create a balance between technology and convenience for pastors and their congregations.

Check out five tips below for getting more use and success from your giving kiosk.

Don’t have a church giving kiosk yet? Get some information for choosing the right kiosk for your church.

1. Create a Fast, Simple Donation Process

According to a Nasdaq survey, around 97 percent of people have backed out of a purchase before simply because it was inconvenient for them. Today’s consumers are used to fast results that don’t take a whole lot of work from them.

Donors are consumers, and those habits and preferences carry over to acts of giving. If your kiosk has a complex interface or requires too many steps to complete a transaction, potential donors may back away. Even if they do manage to complete the task once, they might remember their annoyance and forgo visiting the kiosk in the future.

Ensure the kiosk requires the least amount of steps and data to securely process a transaction.

2. Use Past Giving Data to Support Preset Giving Amounts

One way to make giving fast and easy at your kiosk is to preprogram some common amounts so people don’t have to type a dollar figure. You might offer them buttons to choose from that let them donate $10, $25 or $50, for example.

To figure out which amounts are most likely to work for your average donor, look at past giving data. If your average individual donations range between $50 and $100, you might set presets in those amounts. Just ensure donors can also bypass buttons and enter a custom amount too.

Don’t have a lot of data or want to up the ante on your donation campaigns? Discover more about how to create a successful donation campaign.

3. Choose a Good Spot for Your Giving Kiosk

When items are placed in a retail store on an endcap, they get an average boost in sales of around 32 percent. That’s purely due to exposure!

Your donor kiosk can get the same boost in performance when it’s in the right location. Here are some tips for placement:

• Choose an area with high foot traffic.
• Make it convenient to worship or fellowship activities.
• Don’t hide it behind furniture or other barriers.
• Ensure the kiosk doesn’t impede the flow of traffic or cause a safety concern.
• Use signage to point people to the kiosk, but strike a balance between clarity and tact.

4. Promote the Giving Kiosk to Church Members

Make sure people know what the kiosk is and how to use it. Announce it in worship and fellowship activities, and refer to it whenever you’re talking about fundraising or tithing efforts.

For example, if you’re announcing that the youth are raising money for a mission trip, you can add, “Don’t forget you can donate with a variety of payment methods at the giving kiosk in the foyer. Click on the youth mission campaign to earmark your donation for the effort.”

Other ways to promote the giving kiosk include mentioning it in emails and sharing a video about it during announcements before worship and on your church social media pages. The video can just let people know the benefits of the kiosk or it can provide a how-to demonstration so people know how easy it is to give.

5. Train Church Staff and Volunteers to Support Kiosk Giving

Psychology Today points out that when you need help in a customer service situation, it helps to ask for it through more than one channel. And sometimes, a personal ask is the most effective method of getting people to act.

Train your church staff on how to use the kiosk, how to help others use it and how to tactfully and appropriately develop donors. Coaching that makes your staff confident in talking about financial needs and how people can help lets you reach more people and point them in the direction of your church giving kiosk.

How DonorWerx Can Help

From online coaching solutions to help you grow your church leadership team to donor development and software options, we have the knowledge and solutions to help you succeed. Find out more today to Get started.